Nineteenth Century Philosophy

Anarchism

What was Peter Kropotkin’s doctrine of anarchist-communism?

Kropotkin’s proposals proceeded from the needs of consumers. He envisioned a free-distribution warehouse, instead of the collectivist production cooperatives proposed by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865). The main cohesive forces were to be based on social ties, rather than production goals. In his La Conquête du pain (The Conquest of Bread), Kropotkin attempted to work out the details of his system, which was based on ideas previously developed in Thomas More’s 1516 work, Utopia, and directly made known to Kropotkin by François Dumartheray, who had worked with Kropotkin in setting up the journal Le Révolté.